We have patients who do that now due to having a cell phone at bedside.

If you call 911 from a house phone (in rooms, etc.) it routes you to the hospital operator (to keep those pesky demented folks from tormenting the 911 operators).

If they call via cell, we get a visit from the house police, because the local police call them and tell them to get the phone.

Ah, memories! I had one guy do this so much, I finally asked the cops to move his phone (to the nurses' station). He would not let us have it, because we were "trying to kill him". At least, he respected authority.

We have a doctor's crazy wife who calls here ALL THE TIME when in manic mode. New operators are always sympathetic at first, thinking the old timers are heartless. It doesn't take long before they start hanging up on her, too. And Officer Cynical, totally love the alternative ending!

When I was a resident on nightfloat, I had an elderly woman with dementia and likely superimposed delirium violently claim that the nurses/hospital staff drove her to the woods, tied her to a tree, and performed watchcraft on her. In the morning, when her son (who seemed like a reasonable guy) came to visit her, he stopped me.

Son: "So my mom was saying some pretty crazy things about what was going on last night, involving tying her up in the woods with witchcraft."

Me: "Yeah, sometimes when patients are in unfamiliar environments and acutely sick, they can experience confusion and changes in mental status, I think the best thing.."

Son: "No, these are some pretty serious accusations she's making. I'm probably going to report this to the police. I hope you're looking into the nurses' behavior and that they're not performing witchcraft on my mohter!"

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

Singing Foo!

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